Triumph of Love Archives

The Triumph of Love at the Almeida – Review

On September 6, 1999May 12, 2021 By helenistic No Comments

Helen McCrory is a Very Special Talent

Matt Wolf | September 6, 1999 | Variety

It takes a very special actress to burst the fey, densely plotted artifice that comes with the plays of Marivaux, but Helen McCrory is a very special talent indeed. Her amazing performance last year in “How I Learned to Drive” — a portrait of awakened sexuality both confident and fearful — transformed Paula Vogel’s play, and McCrory is scarcely less commanding amid the thicket of amorous intrigue that defines “The Triumph of Love.” Her surroundings on this occasion, however, aren’t nearly as happy as they were at the Donmar Warehouse last year, and even the staunchest of admirers may have trouble sitting through the (intermissionless) evening.

The problem is a production that is pitched somewhere between the Keystone Kops and “As You Like It” — McCrory and sidekick Tonia Chauvet would make a terrific Rosalind and Celia — of a play that is beloved by academics but is arid and even dull in performance, defying a decidedly eccentric supporting cast to bring it to tingling life.

Continue reading The Triumph of Love at the Almeida – Review

Print Media Reviews Triumph of Love

The Triumph of Love at the Almeida – Review

On September 5, 1999May 14, 2021 By helenistic No Comments

Hiding behind the mask of love

by Paul Taylor | September 5, 1999 | The Independent

HEROINES who go round disguised as men are as common in classical comedy as men who go around disguised as Barbra Streisand are in certain clubs. But few of the former breed are as single-minded as Princess Leonide, the central figure in Marivaux’s 1732 play The Triumph of Love, revived in a witty and beautifully judged production by James Macdonald.

The high curved hedges and sandy floor of Jeremy Herbert’s set evokes the rural retreat of the philosopher Hermovrate and his frumpy sister, Leontine, the kind of self-deceivedly high-minded couple to whom the mere mention of the word “love” is anathema. Since he was smuggled there as a child, this sequestered residence has been the secret home of Agis, the rightful heir to the throne usurped by Leonide’s family. Having fallen in love with him from afar, the Princess infiltrates the set-up in male disguise. Her aim is to win his hand and restore the kingdom to him. But as the daughter of his enemies, she can scarcely expect an immediate welcome and so feels the need to approach his heart via various incognitos.

Continue reading The Triumph of Love at the Almeida – Review

Print Media Reviews Triumph of Love

The Triumph of Love at the Almedia – Review

On September 3, 1999May 24, 2021 By helenistic No Comments

Comic age of reason

by Michael Billington | September 3, 1999 | The Guardian

This is the third Marivaux play to hit London this year. Exactly like The Dispute and The Game Of Love And Chance, it takes a scientific look at sentiment. But what makes Marivaux such a brilliantly ambiguous writer, as James Macdonald’s revival shrewdly realises, is that he attacks the notion that you can treat people as guinea-pigs while analysing the human heart with merciless precision.

Written in 1732, the play is set in mythical Greece though the ambience is deeply French.The situation is also simple, even if the background is complex; both Martin Crimp’s otherwise impeccable translation and the production could do more to clarify the crucial exposition.

Continue reading The Triumph of Love at the Almedia – Review